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Question

I want to know God in my life. I am not a Christian but I want contact with God. How do I make this happen?

Answer

Thank you for your honest question. I can see that you are a very spiritual person. No one can live without God, and the Bible says "in him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28). How can we try and live separate from Him?

Yet it is no easy thing to come to know God. How can we come to know someone who is invisible? How can we be close to someone outside of time and space? No doubt this is what you feel when you say you have no idea how to get this contact with God.

So how can we know God? Let us think how we could know a person who wasn't physically present. Imagine you want to know Fred who lives on the other side of the globe. How can you come to know him

You could try imagining him. You could decide that Fred has brown hair, blue eyes and is a fanatic football fan, but that isn't really getting to know him. Fred could in fact have blond hair, brown eyes and have no interest in sport whatsoever. Imagining him won't do.

Yet that is what we often do with God. We often sit back and try to think about Him. Inevitably we will create our own God, rather than come to know the true creator. God does not approve of this. In the Bible, God's word, it says: "They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation." (Deuteronomy 32:21). If people worship something they themselves have made, they do not worship God.

The only way for me to know Fred is if he reveals himself to me. Maybe he could write to me and tell me about himself. Maybe he could give me a picture. Maybe he could fly across the world and meet me in person. But unless Fred is willing, I can't know him.

It is the same with God, and thankfully He has revealed himself. For many years, He spoke through prophets who explained what He was like. This wasn't just their imaginings but they were guided by God. We are told that no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). God, being all-powerful, used prophets like we would use a pen and ink, to write a letter and reveal himself to us.

However, in Jesus He did something much more incredible; Jesus was not just a prophet.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Jesus was someone much greater than the prophets. It says that Jesus is the exact imprint of his nature; when we see Jesus, we see God. This indeed was what Jesus said of Himself. One of his disciples once asked Him to show the Father, and Jesus responded, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" (John 14:9)

Jesus didn't see Himself as a prophet, but rather as the exact representation of God the Father. If you want to know the Father you need to know Jesus!

Consider this episode from His life:

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 16:13-17)

Notice, all the people around Jesus viewed Him as one of the prophets. But when Peter recognises Him as God's Son, Jesus praises Him. Sons in those days always followed the family profession. A son of a blacksmith was a blacksmith. A son of a priest was a priest. And the Son of God is God! The Jews saw this: at one stage where Jesus called God His Father they tried to kill him. Why? Because he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:18). He was not claiming to just be a man when He called Himself God's Son. He was claiming to be equal with God.

Why else would Jesus have been killed on a cross? For inciting a rebellion? He made clear to Pontius Pilate, "My kingdom is not from the world." (John 18:36). No. This was the reason the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy". (Matthew 26:65).

We cannot say that Jesus was simply a prophet. Clearly He believed Himself to be God. So He is either an insane blasphemer with a death wish, or He is God. When the Father rose Jesus from the dead He made clear what the answer was. He was truly God!

Therefore, to know Jesus is to know God. This isn't something that should cause us to worry, but something that should cause us to rejoice. For in truth, if we have lived without God all our lives, He has every reason for not accepting us back. The Bible says, All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned - every one - to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6). Following ourselves, not God, we have gone astray: God has every right to destroy us.

However, in Jesus' life we see clearly that God has forgiven us. One of the most famous verses in the Bible says this "for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life". (John 3:16) Jesus demonstrates that God forgives all we have done wrong and that God's love is great enough that He would sacrifice Himself us. If Jesus is a picture of God, He is a picture of acceptance and forgiveness.

There is obviously much more that we can know. How does this relationship with God work out in practice? What is the way you can come to know God through Jesus better? However, the most important thing you can take away today is that the only way to get relationship with God is in Jesus.

In summary, Jesus once said this "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6). The only way to access God is through Jesus. Accept Him as your Lord and Saviour today.

Here are some more Bible Verses for your further consideration:

Acts 4:12

John 1:1-18

I hope this answer helps you to find peace with God through Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about what Jesus has done for you please watch the video on the main part of our site: Watch the video

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*All Scripture references are taken From The English Standard Version of the Holy Bible unless stated otherwise

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